I wan't sure what to expect with this. It had 50 out or 100 at Rotten Tomatoes, so it will probably suck. But who knows, I mean, it starts with a heist. A heist! And then they introduce The Governor from The Walking Dead as a police chief or commissioner or somesuch for a police department or Interpol or something. So, this thing's got legs.
The running is done by that kid from Wanted who I had never seen before and haven't seen since. You know the kid - the one that you at first think might be Shia LaBeouf, but then he doesn't pronounce stuff the same way. It's like he's British or something and he's trying to do an American accent, but it's not working too well. It turns out, he's from Glasgow, so that would explain it quite a bit, wouldn't it? Anyway, he plays a cop who doesn't play by the rules. We're breaking new ground here.
His main target is Mark Strong playing the care-free rogue who has to go save his son when he gets in trouble. You remember Mark - he was the guy who played Sinestro in that ferociously bad Green Lantern movie with Ryan Reynolds. Well, he shoots our hero in the leg when he should have shot him in the head. Well, our hero never gets over the emotional and physical scars left over from that. He appears to have to drain some fluid from his leg once or twice a week, and he walks with a nasty limp.
Interestingly, the villain comes off as more human than the cop. They both get wrapped up in revenge schemes, but the cop comes off as completely unsympathetic, while the bad guy is thoughtful, intelligent, and measured in his actions. The hero is a loner who alienates everyone around him, while the villain has many friends who would risk a lot for him. Ultimately, I wanted the bad guy to win, and that doesn't seem like it was what they were going for.
Cinematography was very good.
The direction was pretty good.
The writing was fair.
Dialogue was actually a bit weak.
Editing was a mixed bag - action scenes were spliced a LOT.
Acting was pretty good on Mark's part. Better than Sinestro.
All told, it was an okay movie. I've certainly watched worse.
3.0/5